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| Lady_Anna_Bradford |
I'm a keen fishkeeper with two tropical tanks. I'm also a good one which means I am now in this particular predicament.
I have a Texas Cichlid. A full grown adult male of 7 inches. He's now about 5 years old which is remarkable apparently. They usually last 3-4 years and getting them to 4 is really good going.
He's about 90 in human years to give you an idea of his advancing years. He's also on his way out and his tank mates know this. My blue dwarf gourami started munching on his left fin and the larger Ghost knife fish started on his dorsal fin. Instead of facing them off my Texas propped himself up into a stress position in the corner and started to look really distressed. When he flopped over onto his side and the larger clown loach started on his flanks I moved him out. I can watch Nature at her grimmest on TV but not in my living room. 
I've moved him out of the big tank into my smaller 35 ltr tank to live out the rest of his days but he won't come out of this sideways flop thing. He's stuck on his side and can't seem to right himself, like he has suffered a stroke. I've spoken to my fish shop and they say there is nothing I can do. In the wild he'd have been gobbled up by a bigger fish. He's still eating blood worms but he looks distressed, really distressed and he's losing his gorgeous blue colouring. His eye roves around watching me in the kitchen and if I get close he sometimes panics and hurtles around the small tank banging off the sides frightening my one discus.
I've had him 5 years, I've had to pull a dead corydorus out of his mouth with tweezers because the idiot thought they were edible, and we've been fighting a battle together against his propensity to hole-in-the-head for three years or so. All this means I can't just flush him (he isn't dead!), nor can I leave him out of the water and watch him die.
My little fish are gobbled up by the bigger before they fall off their zimmers. This is the biggest fish I have.
What do I do? Leave him to die?
Is there an alternative I haven't considered.
I can't put him in the freezer either. I can't kill him.
Edited Tue 21 Jun 11, 12:55 PM by Lady_Anna_Bradford
| 21 Jun 11, 10:13 AM pilsburyDB 19 mths |
I had the same thing happen to my big Oscar, in the end I had to do the decent thing and as a fisherman I just used my priest.... Seemed the kindest way
Don't piss me off or I'm going dogging! | |
| 21 Jun 11, 10:33 AM Ama_Sidero UK(GU), 7 yrs       |
I'm sorry, LAB. We stopped doing fish because none of us liked that part of it. They say the most humane way is to put them in a glass and use alka seltzer. @Play_Space - Next party is Friday, June 17 from 930 - 3 am. Info found here: http://www.informedconsent.co.uk/posts/301137/0/... Road Trip to the Sea!!! Next tentatively planned in October.....Just elapsed...More info here:http://www.informedconsent.co.uk/posts/305429/0/... | |
| 21 Jun 11, 10:41 AM SheilaBlyge UK(S), 4 yrs  |
I can't offer any practical help, but having nursed poorly rescue snakeys, I offer my sympathy, the last days are awful. We stayed up day and night for 3 days trying to keep our big boa girl warm and humid through the respiratory infection that got her in the end, feeling helpless and foolish, but trying to do the right thing. People seem to understand the attachment to fluffy things, but not so much to our scaly friends. *hugs* | |
| 21 Jun 11, 10:58 AM Dimitri100 UK(KT), 8 yrs |
Sorry to read this. However, this method might be of use if you decide to end his life humanely http://www.ehow.com/how_4871311_kill-sick-fish-h... Edited 21 Jun 11, 11:01 AM by Dimitri100 | |
| 21 Jun 11, 12:33 PM curious_wee_lass UK(G), 12 mths |
sounds like swimbladder to me - it was no doubt traumatic for him to be moved - alternatively it is the water quality did you cycle the smaller tank before you moved him? | |
| 21 Jun 11, 12:55 PM lilybee  UK(TN), 5 yrs    |
Hiya I don't keep fish anymore, got rather expensive! But one of the things that was useful was this forum. There might be something or someone on there who can help you. lily lily | |
| 21 Jun 11, 12:56 PM Lady_Anna_Bradford UK(BD), 5 yrs  |
You used your priest to euthanise your fish?
"If no sexual offence is being committed it seems very odd indeed that there should be an offence for having an image of something which was not an offence," Lord Wallace of Tankerness | |
| 21 Jun 11, 12:57 PM Lady_Anna_Bradford UK(BD), 5 yrs |
It isn't swim bladder, it is old age. I moved him out of his big tank because his tank mates were starting to eat him alive. "If no sexual offence is being committed it seems very odd indeed that there should be an offence for having an image of something which was not an offence," Lord Wallace of Tankerness Edited 21 Jun 11, 12:59 PM by Lady_Anna_Bradford | |
| 21 Jun 11, 12:58 PM Lady_Anna_Bradford UK(BD), 5 yrs |
I think I may have some clove oil in my CBT box. Thanks for that. "If no sexual offence is being committed it seems very odd indeed that there should be an offence for having an image of something which was not an offence," Lord Wallace of Tankerness | |
| 21 Jun 11, 1:02 PM Lady_Anna_Bradford UK(BD), 5 yrs |
I considered a specialist forum but I really don't think I can face joining another flippin' forum. "If no sexual offence is being committed it seems very odd indeed that there should be an offence for having an image of something which was not an offence," Lord Wallace of Tankerness |
